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wounded. Professor Digby, the senior surgeon at Queen Mary Hospital, told me that the hospital was crowded with wounded when the Japanese ordered it to be evacuated. There were many terribly injured soldiers for whom any movement was practically a death sentence and he had protested most forcibly against their removal. Some of the doctors and sisters also volunteered to remain and look after them under Japanese supervision. But it was of no avail, and all the doctors could do was to fill the poor men up with morphia before they were loaded on ambulances and lorries and taken to the military hospital at Bowen Road. Professor Digby described it as one of the most heartless performances in his experience.
STANLEY INTERNMENT CAMP
The camp is situated in pleasant surroundings on the Stanley Peninsula. It consists of the Warders' Quarters of Stanley Prison and the premises of St. Stephen's Boys School, well built, modern blocks with electricity, running water, flush closets, etc. While there is a considerable difference between the blocks inter se (e.g., between the Foreign and Indian warders quarters) there is no real ground for complaint regarding the quarters themselves, which are probably well above the average for internment camps. The area is surrounded by barbed wire with Indian guards at intervals, but the grounds are spacious (it would take about 25 to 30 minutes to walk round the perimeter), there is a good bowls lawn and room for soft ball etc.
This having been said, we come to the reverse of the medal. One of the most serious grievances of the internees was that of overcrowding. In the Foreign married warders' quarters (which are the best in the camp) there were as many as 9 people living in the larger rooms, and five or six in the smaller rooms. In a flat normally occupied by one married warder and his family there were between 30 and 40 persons. To take
In our flat there were: my own case:
in Room 1:- One married couple, one mother and baby, and 4 other women; in Room 2:- five women; in Room 3:- Four married couples and one baby; in Room 4:- Two married couples, one grown-up daughter and a boy; in each of 2 Servants' rooms:- One married couple; in the Pantry:- One married couple. The furniture found in the flats was divided up roughly. Some rooms got beds but no tables. Others got chairs, and so on. In our room, for 9 people we had two chairs and no tables. Of course, people improvised and to some extent the gaps were filled, but even when we